Fireteam Mobius
by CharmedPluto
Summary: Follow the story of three Warlocks that come from a very different age.
1. Prologue

The Grimiore; a collection of stories spanning from the Golden Age to the Age of the City. It chronicles the stories of heroes, of villains, of monsters so terrifying that no one dare speak their names aloud. It is the ultimate source of knowledge in this day and age. Within its pages are stories of the Guardians, who wielded the light of their god: The Traveler. The Earth was once a proud planet, boasting many different species, and ruled by Humans, who dreamed of exploring the stars above. But humanity was weak, frail, and unwilling to brave the unknown out of their own fear of death. The Traveler appeared on Earth one day some hundreds of years ago. With it came the Awoken, a species that lived in the Asteroid belt, consumed by the Traveler's light as well as technology that fulfilled the dreams of humanity to travel the stars. For the next few centuries, humanity expanded across their local system. They advanced in technology at an astounding pace. The Traveler terraformed planets previously uninhabitable. Mercury, closest to the sun, became a garden world. With it's vast reserves of crops, it ended hunger across the system. Venus, with it's toxic atmosphere, became the largest college in the galaxy. The entire planet's surface became dotted with schools and it culminated the greatest minds of the Golden Age in one place. With their combine knowledge they cured diseases and even created the first true AI, birthing the third race of the Vanguard, the Exos. Earth, the Cradle of Humanity, became a capital. A Megalopolis where governments met and created the law of the inner system sprawled across her surface, so vast that it shined in the darkness of space. And finally Mars, Humanities dream, became a trading post so vast that even the smallest of merchants could trade here and become wealthy beyond their wildest imagination. This was the Golden Age.

But it would not last.

Beyond the solar system, more races would appear. With them they would bring the Darkness. Our beautiful creation would be all but lost.

The Vex were the first to push us back to the Earth. After taking over Mercury, and transforming our garden into a machine, they proceeded to Venus. They unearthed monuments beneath our schools and linked up a system of travel vastly beyond our understanding. This got them to Mars as well. Next came the Cabal. They laid siege to Mars, and now struggle against the Vex for total control of the once thriving planet. The Hive appeared next, led by Crota, son of Oryx. With his army, he plundered our beautiful Moon, hallowed it out and stuffed it full of his Spawn. Finally, the Fallen appeared. A race of 5 factions each would lay claim to one of our worlds. The House of Winter laid claim to Venus. The House of Devils claimed the Earth. The House of Kings would claim Mercury but the Vex would defeat them. The House of Judgment and the House of Wolves however would be stunted by the Awoken and imprisoned within their world.

All of this combined led to an event called The Collapse.

However the Grimiore fails to mention a fourth species among the ranks of the Guardians. Living among the humans were a species of godly strength. They possessed a set of relics more ancient than even the Vex: the Chaos Emeralds. With these seven gems, the Mobians as they called themselves, struggled against the forces of the Darkness and those corrupted by its power.

The Grimiore fails to tell of the great machine that consumed the Chaos Emeralds, ascended to the likeness of a god and vanished when the Fallen appeared.

The Grimiore does not tell of the feats of Fireteam Mobius.

I write this now to anyone who will read it. This entry in the Grimiore details accounts of a fireteam, who became a raid team and slew something so powerful in may have just saved the galaxy from the Darkness.


	2. Chapter 1

The skies of Earth weren't normally dark at 2:30 in the afternoon. Thanks to Metal Overlord, however, darkness seemed to cast a shadow over the once thriving planet. The beast roared and blasts of energy shot from his mouth tearing up streets and sidewalks and blasting away what remained of the former city where the machine inhabited. Below, pelting away at mach speed as more energy blasts stitched a line behind him was Shadow the Hedgehog, one of the last surviving Mobians strong enough to fight against Metal and his army of Badniks. His friends and allies had all lost their lives in one way or another throughout the passed 100 years. Shadow, despite his dark nature, was all that stood as a beacon of hope and light against Metal. No matter how many times he gathered a resistance and attempted to fight back, Metal Sonic always ran them over with next to no trouble at all. This last raid however had run particularly badly. His raid group had been scattered without a fight and then subsequently killed off by Badniks. The hedgehog was on the retreat. He slide around a corner and pelted toward the Safe Haven outside of the city, a route he'd taken many times during scouting missions. The building in front of him exploded, sending debris and dust scattering all around. He skid to a stop covering his eyes. Between him and his escape stood Metal Sonic himself.

"I GROW TIRED OF YOU AND YOUR RAIDERS!" the monster screamed so loud that his booming voice brought Shadow to his knees clutching his ears in agony. With a swipe of his hand the beast slapped Shadow back to the end of the street and slammed him through a store window. The hedgehog's vision tunneled and blurred and he crashed into the back wall caving it in. The store's own weight brought it down collapsing on top of him in a puff of dust and rubble.

"Remain dead...if you know what's good for you." the machine stated turning its back to return to its own sanctuary.

The rubble stirred and Shadow emerged, covered in cuts and bruises. He was bleeding badly from his right shoulder, and his right arm hung uselessly at his side. One eye was shut and drenched in blood and out of his other he could barely see as the trauma from smashing into the building hadn't subsided yet. Regardless Shadow growled defiantly and stumbled toward Metal. The machine paid him no mind.

"Hey..." Shadow groaned weakly, "C-come back here...I'm not done with you..."

The monster stopped and turned, "Unfortunately, I am done with you."

A glowing ball of hellfire formed in Metal's mouth. Shadow flinched, his legs locked up, he couldn't move no matter how much he will himself to. His vision grew dimmer as the seconds went on, if it weren't for this lance of energy that was about to vaporize him he would've bled out anyways.

"I'm sorry my friends." he managed to utter as he went completely blind, "I've...failed...you all."

The hedgehog dropped to a knee, whether his strength had left him or he was accepting his fate not even he knew. The bolt fired and Shadow's world spun. The blast hit him square in the chest and detonated with the fury of 100 sticks of dynamite. His body was tossed a solid thirty feet into the air before he slammed into the top of a car. The roof of the vehicle collapsed in on itself shaping deadly spears of sheered metal which impaled Shadow in at least four different places. The wind exploded from his lungs as he finally came to rest in a pool of blood.

"So this is my end…?" he muttered weakly, "Not a bad run I guess..."

His head grew light and his breathing slowed. The swimming gave way and his breathing eventually halted all together. Silence. Nothing moved nothing stirred.

With the last hope of the Freedom Fighters defeated, Metal Sonic began to rebuild the world in his own image, however this image wouldn't last long.

Where was he? How long had he been in this...trance? He saw not but darkness. On the edge of the nothing there was something bright, something glowing radiant with light. His body refused to move for what felt like hours...days even. Suddenly the light grew very bright, so much so that it blinded him and he felt weighed down.


	3. Chapter 2

(200 years later)

"Guardian?" a voice said

Shadow's eyes opened and his vision slowly faded in. He felt like he weighed a ton. Moving was difficult, his muscles were wound up tighter than steel cable. His head hurt and his body protested each and every little movement he made. Even breathing was difficult.

"Eyes up Guardian." it ordered.

Willing himself to do so, Shadow looked up. Floating above him was a small little creature...mechanical in nature clearly. Immediately Shadow lost trust in it, for 100 straight years he'd fought against machines to try saving himself his friends and his world...wait...didn't he…?

"It worked." The little bot said, "You're alive!"

"I-" he muttered, it was hard to speak right now, "Agh...my head..."

"You don't know how long I've been looking for you."

"What? You were looking for me? Nevermind that, who-no _what_ are you?"

"I'm a Ghost."

"A Ghost?"

"Well actually I'm your Ghost, now. And you...well you've been dead a long time."

"How long?"

"I don't know, but judging from the condition of your remains, long enough. Now that you're alive again, you're going to see things you won't understand."

Now that the little robot mentioned it, the area around him had certainly changed. The building were in an even worse shape of disrepair. Bodies of Badniks lay strewn all over the ground. Those were freshly killed off too from the look of it. And there were thousands of them scattered all over the place. A building that he remembered burning looked like it hadn't been ablaze in forever. A roar off in the distance jarred Shadow from thought. The Ghost faced where it had come from for a moment then back to the hedgehog.

"This is Fallen territory, we're not safe here." The little bot said floating a little ways away from Shadow, "I need to get you to the City."

It hadn't occurred to him but now Shadow was wearing some kind of armor. He looked his hands over and noted the fitted rubber gloves on his hand, glancing in a nearby puddle he saw himself wearing a gas mask/helmet hybrid. His shoes were still his old jet shoes only now they were redesigned to be more boot-like. Ghost made a noise and floated towards him again this time dissolving into beams of blue light and disappearing.

"Don't worry," the bot's voice said as if coming from directly behind Shadow. The hedgehog turned around but saw nothing.

"I'm still with you. Now let's get you inside."

A beacon appeared prompting Shadow to note the display on the helmet's visor. There was a motion tracker in the top left corner, the bottom half of which was glowing red on the outer ring.

"C'mon, we need you to get inside." Ghost urged.

Without anymore hesitation, Shadow moved quickly heading toward the beacon that appeared on his HUD. Wherever this Ghost wanted him to go, it didn't seem like he had much of a choice in the matter. He understood so little of what was happening right now and it was really egging at him. However if Ghost believed they weren't safe then now was not the time to start spouting off questions.

"No need to tell me twice."

With a mighty push from sore muscles, Shadow bolted away from the so-called Fallen pursuing him. He rounded a corner and ducked inside a building before slowing up.

"This is odd..." he muttered.

"What's wrong?" Ghost asked

The hedgehog shook his head, "Nothing...I used to be much faster than this."

"Your muscles will return to their full strength in due time. I know you just woke up and all but still you can rest once we're safely in the City."

Ghost spoke City like it was different place. The were in the ruins of Westopolis after all except Metal Sonic was no where to be found. Whatever the case was, Shadow counted that as a blessing. The hedgehog made his way through this building, picking carefully through the ruins and following Ghost's instructions. The roars and screeches of the Fallen behind them grew steadily louder as they proceeded deeper into the city.

"I need to find you a weapon before the Fallen find us." Ghost finally said as the two entered what looked like an old garage. From the looks of the ruins before entering here, this was once someone's home. Inside sat the remains of a vehicle, from the look of it the engine had been professionally removed and the rest of it sat on jacks with the two back tires removed. Shadow inspected the poor thing, taking note that the transmission, the drive shaft and even the steering column and dashboard had all been removed. All done by hand. This was once someone's project.

"Seems like someone's work from pre-Golden Age." Ghost said, "Such a shame."

The two made their way through the house eventually dropping through a hole in the floor which carved a path about half a mile long and eventually resurfaced them on the streets of downtown Westopolis. The Fallen screams remained like the whole city was scurrying with them.

"Still no luck with a weapon?" Shadow asked sifting through the ruins of an old gun shop just up the street from where they surfaced. Unfortunately all he found was either damaged beyond repair or had already been cannibalized for its parts rendering it useless.

"Nothing yet...but I have found us another problem."

Shadow exited the store and spotted the problem. Someone's military had sealed the area off as a quarantine zone. Standing between them and this safe haven Ghost spoke of was a wall a few hundred feet tall. There was no way, in his condition, Shadow was scaling that. Luckily they happened to be by an access point, however said access point required a code to exit.

"This is pre-Golden Age security. I'll see what I can do." Ghost stated and began scanning the number pad on the hanger style garage door.

The Fallen shrieks grew very loud all of a sudden.

"Damn it...they've caught up." Shadow said already able to see the beady yellow eyes of a group of Dregs picking their way across the ruins towards them. They held small rifles it looked like but it was hard to tell.

"Door's open. Get in quickly. There's a rifle on the other side." Ghost spouted off.

Shadow rushed passed the checkpoint, rounded a corner, and sure enough laying against a wall, albeit next to the remains of a dead Mobian, was a fully assembled rifle. Without hesitation, Shadow grabbed it, checked the magazine and the other components before charging the weapon and slinging the sling over his shoulder.

"I hope you know how to use that thing."

"Tch," Shadow scoffed, "I was a marksmen of sorts before I died..."-it was in that instance that he realized just how morbid that sounded.

The sounds of the pursuing Fallen troops died away as the Ghost sealed the door behind them. An angry Vandal slammed against the cage-like door, cursed in a language Shadow hadn't heard of even in the most Underground of Sci-fi movies before it moved on. With no time to waste the hedgehog pressed on ahead, wondering what would await him on the other side of this damned wall.


	4. Chapter 3

Shadow picked his way through the streets not really sure where he was intent on going. His only certainty was that Ghost wanted him to go somewhere.

"My scans show that the subway systems are still operational." Ghost told him, "If we can get on one to get us going towards the old space port we might be able to secure a ship."

The hedgehog had never liked the space port. Namely because the last time he'd hopped on a spacebound ship it was for a mission to recover the Chaos Emeralds which were stolen by a machine-like race called the Metarex. He still got shivers from reliving the final battle fighting Dark Oak. He made his way down into the old metro tunnels slipping through the darkness as he went. A putrid odor filled the air suddenly and Shadow snarled. The mask he was wearing filtered out toxins, sure, but smell was another case…

"Chaos..." he muttered wishing he could plug his nose right now, "What the hell is that smell?"

"I'm not sure." Ghost admitted.

"Well you're not exactly organic, I wouldn't expect you to know a what bad smell is."

"Oddly enough I can smell it too, and trust me right now I really wish I couldn't."

Up ahead he spotted a tram that by some act of the gods was still working. The single car arrived and the doors opened up almost as if they were waiting for him. The hedgehog was suspicious but got on regardless, even if this were a trap he was not only armed but had his powers as well. The doors shut and the tram lurched forward before gliding down the rails towards the space port. He sat on one of the seat that wasn't soaked with old blood or still had remains in it. Whatever had happened here to have left this sort of carnage had to have happened some time ago. The blood was already clotted and most of the bodies were nothing but bones now. He continued trying to wrap his head around what the hell was going on, he went over the events Ghost had told him about which really wasn't much to go off of.

"Okay, let me get this straight Ghost," Shadow spoke after a fairly long silence, "These creatures called the Fallen showed up on Mobius and just started tearing the world apart and then you found me and brought me back to life as this so-called Guardian so now I'm...what your messiah or something?"

"Not exactly. You are a Guardian. There are others too. All of them have been revived due to their ability to wield the Traveler's Light as a weapon-"

"Traveler's Light? And that is what exactly?"

"Do you not know the Traveler?"

"Nope. Never heard of him until now."

"It. The Traveler is a godly machine of sorts."

Shadow frowned under his mask, "Let me guess, it's a big blue dragon looking thing?"

Ghost would've made a face were he able to, "No...the Traveler is a giant white orb."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"Anyhow, the Traveler brought about a technological revolution to humanity. It gave them improved FTL travel, terraformed worlds for colonization, and did more amazing things than anyone could've possibly imagined. But...one day it just died. No one knows how it happened or why but ever since then we've been on the run. The Hive, the Cabal, the Vex and the Fallen all brought their own troubles with them too so that didn't-"

Shadow arced a brow, "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there Jeff Gordon. The who?"

"Four races appeared as everything we had worked to hard to create began collapsing around us. The Vex, time traveling machines, terraformed Mercury into one of their machine worlds within a month and then pressed onto both Venus and Mars. Then the Fallen Skiffs began to appear in the skies of the Earth and Venus. We tried to hold them back but a two front war between them was not easy. Mars wouldn't get any easier to hold either as the Cabal showed up, they're basically the Roman Empire from space. Last, we have-"

The rail car shook violently and skid to a halt. The lights died as someone or something severed the power.

"Oh boy..." Ghost muttered.

Shadow stood readying his weapon it took a minute for his eyes to adjust the darkness. Something smashed through one of the windows sending glass scattering to the floor. The claws that now stuck in the broken window glowed faint blue with Arc energy. Without hesitating, Shadow shot three rounds out of the window clipping whatever those claws belonged to. It roared a high pitched squeal and retreated.

"What the hell was that? Fallen?" Shadow muttered

"No. Hive. A Thrall by the look of it."

"Oh perfect."

The doors suddenly ripped open and standing before him were more of them. Three Acolytes a small group of Thrall and a large knight wielding a mighty sword. Shadow's rifle snapped up and loosed fire. The Thrall charged in, soaking up most of his bullets and dying in the process, however the Acolytes didn't rush him like he thought they would. Instead they returned fire with their own weapons, which fired purple looking lasers. Shadow dove aside and returned fire killing one of the Acolytes instantly before sliding out of the car and onto the rails. The Hive followed him out as he ran into the tunnel only bent on getting to the beacon that Ghost had marked on his display. Bolts of energy slapped him in the back and knocked him over. He slapped the ground the wrong way and lost almost all of his momentum so there was no recovering quickly like he would've normally. His muscles still hadn't fully recovered from being dead however long. Shadow got to his feat and now had no choice but to engage the Hive. He fired taking down a second Acolyte only to nearly be overwhelmed by Thrall. One force his weapon away from it bringing down a claw of arcing lightning. As if on instinct, the hedgehog slammed an open palm at the monsters head tossing it back from the sheer force. He readied his weapon again, only managing though to get two or three round off before a Thrall slashed him across the chest. The things claws tore through his armor leaving a trio of bleeding gashes in their wake. Shadow grit his teeth in pain and staggered back. He readied his weapon and fired again, this time killing the closest Thrall with two rounds. The slide stuck back. The last of the Thrall closed in. Shadow didn't really think about what he did next, he slammed a hand forward almost futilely. A blast of purple light lashed out about three feet ahead of him. It wrapped around the Thrall and consumed it which surprised the hedgehog. That was new…

He didn't have time to contemplate what exactly that was and instead turned his attention to his empty weapon. He dropped out the mag and slapped a new one in its place before charging the weapon again. The Acolyte had taken cover behind a column of concrete supporting the tunnel. Shadow tried digging deep, knowing of his old powers. With a wave of his hand he loosed a Chaos Spear. Only something was wrong with it. Chaos Spears were normally either white or red depending on the number of Chaos Emeralds he had...or if he was really mad. This one split upon hitting the ground forming into a purple ball that tracked around the pillar and slammed into the Acolyte consuming it in the same manner as the Thrall had been. The door of the back car dented and caved in catching his attention. A moment later it flew off covering the maybe thirty feet between the car and Shadow and it was still coming.

Shadow moved...yet didn't. Space warped around him and a moment later there he was standing about 10 feet to the right of where the car door had landed. Short ranged teleporting was easy for him, but that seemed...slow. The Knight jumped down out of the tram and charged him. Shadow didn't have time to raise his weapon, the Knight was too fast. It raised his weapon and he stepped aside as it slammed into the ground kicking up old dust. The hedgehog slammed the but of his weapon into its large head knocking it off balance long enough for him to step back and put the whole mag into the thing's upper half. The Knight fell over dead as Shadow's slide locked back again. He reflexively reloaded as Ghost appeared from no where.

"Huh...that's funny." the little Light commented, "Could've sworn you'd end up a Sunsinger..."

"A what?" Shadow muttered before shaking his head, "You know what? Don't answer that. Something's up with my powers. Either this is what happens when I don't use them in a long time or something is wrong with my connection to the Chaos."

"Nope. Those were Void abilities. Congratulations, you're a Voidwalker."

Shadow was about to ask just what the hell that meant but decided against it, "I'll just pretend I know what that is."

"Would you like me to explain?"

"No. I think I've learned enough for one day. Let's focus on getting to this city you're talking about...or at least getting out of Westopolis."

"The City is just outside an old Russian Cosmodrome. We'll need some form of aerial transportation to get there."

The hedgehog made his way on foot towards the closest tram stop before heading up a staircase and back to the surface. Just ahead was the space port, which looked like it had seen better days. Shadow counted his blessing that the building was still standing at least. He headed inside checking around for anything that moved. Nothing stirred.

"Strange." Ghost said, "You would think that the Fallen would have set up a camp or something here."

"Doubt it." Shadow replied taking note that the place looked like it had already been ransacked. He made his way through security taking extra care as to not set any alarms off lest he attract the attention of the Fallen or worse the Hive. Once inside the terminal he started towards the nearest gate in an attempt to make it onto the landing area. There had to be some ships still there that they could use to get the hell out of here. After heading outside through one of the boarding tunnels and dropping down a good 10 feet he spotted quite a few ships still left over. Of course the ships closest to the hanger doors were crawling with Fallen. Immediately to his left was another ship that looked like it hadn't been messed with at all.

"How about we try this one?" Shadow suggested

Ghost floated over to and ran a scan on it.

"Wow. Lucky find. This ship is still fully functional, and it looks like the warpdrive is still intact." Ghost reported

"Well get it online and let's get out of here. I've had enough of this wandering around the wastelands for one day."

Ghost vanished again and the ships engines roared to life, turning the heads of the Fallen at the end of the hanger. Shadow felt weightless for a second before he was suddenly aboard their new ship. Ghost angled the vessel at the hanger doors and gunned the engines. The ship lunged forward tearing out of the hanger and into the air. The hedgehog aboard sat in one of the seats and sighed with relief shedding his helmet as he did.

"Alright," Ghost said, "We're on a direct course for the City so just sit back and rest."

"Already on it..." Shadow admitted, his ruby eyes closed, "You owe me a lot of explanations while we're on the way there."

Ghost hesitated for a second, "Alright, here's the situation."

The little machine began to explain what had happened before it had brought Shadow back to life and what was happening now across the galaxy.


End file.
